Get ready to hear all about the beautiful Croatia.
See you later!
Taken by me - at Plitvice Lakes National Park
Preparem-se para verem as maravilhas da Croácia mais logo.
Até já!
I'm baack!
[english]
It may seem
like I’m back to my old ways of being a sloppy blogger… but I’m actually not, I
swear! Last week I was in Croatia and after arriving on Friday, I spent the
weekend relaxing. You may now be thinking: why the heck do you need to relax
after a holiday? First off, I’m one of the laziest persons ever! But my friends
and I actually packed a lot in to just 4 days, as we left Friday morning. You’ll
read and see all about my trip on the next post, and then you can decide for
yourself!
Relaxing
included some shopping this weekend, mainly because every store was on sale. It
was just TOO tempting! I ended up with a new maxi skirt, a cute blouse, but
most importantly… two new pairs of shoes!! Love them or hate them? Can’t wait
to wear them but I might need to go home (PORTUGAAAAL!) to do so, as the
weather in Manchester is awful – as usual.
Mango
Zara
[portuguese]
Pode parecer que voltei a ser um blogger desnaturada… mas
não se deixem enganar! Fui de férias para a Croácia e depois de ter voltado na
Sexta, passei o fim-de-semana a ser muito preguiçosa! Precisava de relaxar um
bocado, o que pode parece estranho
depois de umas férias, mas eu e as minhas amigas andamos sempre de um lado para
o outro! No meu próximo post vou mostrar
tudo sobre esta mini viagem, e depois vocês vêm se eu não merecia um
descansozinho...
No fim de semana fui aos saldos e comprei estes dois pares
de sapatos, o que acham? Estou ansiosa para os usar mas acho que vou ter que
esperar até chegar a Portugal porque aqui em Manchester praticamente não há
Verão. :(
Presenting the 'How to' series | How to... book a cheap holiday!
[english]
It’s my
pleasure to present the first feature this blog has ever seen – drumroll please
– the How to series! Every week, or so I hope, I will make a post on how to do
something. It can be something totally random or very useful, we’ll see… Hope
you like it!
How to... Book a cheap holiday
Very few
people don’t like travelling and I’m definitely not one of them. I could easily
just leave today and be gone for a few months, but I can't because my mum would kill me.
There’s also the money factor – even if you love travelling, you need to be
able to afford it. I was recently faced with the challenge of booking a holiday under a tight budget, and after succeeding in this daunting task, I thought I could share a
few tips with you guys. Here it goes:
1.
Set
goals
What are you looking to achieve with your holiday? Visit a specific
place, or go away with friends anywhere?
Your goals will guide throughout your booking, from choosing your
destination to booking accommodation.
2.
Check
budget travelling from your area
Research all low cost transportation near you. Depending on your goals,
this could mean two things. If you know exactly where you want to go, just
check all the ways you can get there. Websites like Edreams and Skycanner might make this task easier! If you’re flexible with the destination,
check low cost airlines and see where they fly to. This is a great way to get
to know random places instead of ending up where everyone goes. That’s why I’m
going to Zadar in Croatia – Ryanair flies there from Liverpool, which is an
hour away from Manchester, where I currently live. I can assure you none of us
woke up one morning and thought ‘Let’s go to Zadar!’.
3.
Flexibility
on dates
Dates are very important, especially in the summer and school
holidays. So if your occupation allows you to be flexible, just go when it’s
cheapest – I’m talking to you, uni students with three months of holidays (myself included)!
4.
Flexibility
in accommodation
Again, being flexible pays off. If you’re not bothered about sleeping
with other people in the same room, go for hostels - I promise you they’re not as bad
as they sound! Or even stay further away from the beach or the centre of the city
if that’s the case, as accommodation gets cheaper when you get away from the
main attraction. You’ll also get some extra exercise! But don’t forget to
include transportation costs if they’re required – it may not compensate to be
far away if you’re going to waste the difference on buses and end up wasting
time.
5.
Luggage
You also need to take luggage in consideration when booking a holiday.
For example, if you’re going for a long trip and taking a lot of stuff, compare
prices with airlines that give you luggage allowance or you may end up
travelling low cost for more than what you’d pay in a regular airline.
[portuguese]
Apresento-vos a primeira rubrica do blog: How to! Todas as semanas, ou pelo menos assim o espero, vou publicar um post dedicado a explicar como fazer determinada coisa. O primeiro post desta rubrica é dedicado a como marcar umas férias mais em conta - quem é que está a precisar de espairecer?
How to... marcar umas férias baratas?
Há poucas pessoas que não gostam de viajar e eu
definitivamente não sou uma delas. Se pudesse fazia-me à estrada amanhã e só
voltava daqui a uns meses, mas a minha mãe matava-me! Além disso, temos que ter
em conta o dinheiro – por mais que se goste de viajar, também é preciso ter
dinheiro para o fazer. Para comemorar o final de curso, eu e as minhas amigas
decidimos fazer uma pequena escapadela, e como ficou bastante barata, resolvi
partilhar umas dicas sobre como marcar umas férias em conta.
1.
Define objectivos
O que é queres das tuas férias? Queres
visitar um lugar específico, ou queres só ir a algum lado com os teus amigos?
Saber o que queres vai facilitar o processo, desde a escolha do destino até
decidir onde dormir.
2.
Procura viagens low-cost
Pesquisa meios de transporte low cost perto
de ti. Se o teu objectivo for visitar um local específico, então a tarefa é
mais fácil. Certifica-te que esgotas todas as possibilidades de chegar ao teu
destino e vê qual é a mais barata. Sites como o edreams ou skyscanner são bons para ver as alternativas, mas ao marcar não te esqueças de verificar se fica mais barato no site da própria companhia! Se não tiveres um destino escolhido, então
vê para as companhias low-cost voam – podes ir para a um sítio interessante e
não muito turístico, o que é melhor na maior parte das vezes! Foi assim que eu
acabei por marcar uma viagem para Zadar na Croácia por £50 (aproximadamente 60
€), já que a Ryanair voa para lá de Liverpool, que é a uma hora de Manchester,
onde vivo.
3.
Flexibilidade nas datas
Não é novidade que os preço flutuam imenso
consoante a época, especialmente no verão e em férias escolares. Por isso, se
fores um(a) sortudo(a) como eu e tiveres férias de 3 meses no verão, aproveita
para marcar na altura em que toda a gente ainda está a trabalhar/estudar!
4.
Alojamento
Mais uma vez, ser flexível compensa! Se não
te importares de partilhar um quarto com outras pessoa, aventura-te num hostel
– costumam ser sítios decentes para passar umas noites e até conheces pessoas
novas. Escolher sítios mais afastados da praia ou do centro da cidade também é
uma boa ideia – mas não te esqueças de verificar se vais precisar de transportes
e quanto vais pagar, não queres gastar o dinheiro todo que poupaste em autocarros!
5.
Bagagem
Não te esqueças de levar em consideração a
tua bagagem quando marcares uma férias. Se fores viajar durante algum tempo e
levares bastantes coisas, provavelmente não compensa viajar numa companhia low
cost e pagar pelas malas. Compara tudo!
Fashion's Ugly Secret
[only in English this time, desculpem-me!]
More than 400 people died after a building that housed five factories collapsed in Bangladesh. They were making
clothes for brands like Primark, and the owners of the building were too greedy
to do something about its poor condition. I don’t know about you, but I decided to explore my closet to find out the birthplace of my clothes.
Made in Cambodia (Portugal in the back!)
Made in China
Cambodia... again
If you open your closet right now,
I’ll bet you the majority of your clothes will be made in Asia or North Africa.
There has been some debate about child labour and the poor work conditions of
those countries, but do you remember that when you buy that cute shirt in Zara?
I certainly don’t. But is it our fault? If you buy a packet of cigarettes,
endless warnings, some with horrific pictures, will try to dissuade you from
smoking. None of that happens with these clothes. You never see a picture of a
seven-year-old child making shoes for Nike to warn you about the harm of that
product. It won’t harm you in the process of consumption, as in the case of a
cigarette, but it most likely harmed others in the production process. So why
does no one seem to care?
Business owners have a lot to gain
with the cheap prices they offer in these countries, and in order to keep those
prices low, there is no way they can spend money on improving their employees’
conditions. Governments should be aware of this and put their foot down, but passivity
obviously pays off (bribes, benefits for the economy, etc.) and therefore do
not act. The only party left in this equation are the brands that buy from
those countries.
Primark has said it’s working
towards fixing this issue, but will it really, after the media coverage of
Dhaka stops? Realistically, and business-ly
speaking, the only real motivation for a change would be the customers. If
profit stops coming in because people are protesting against cheap labour,
brands would obviously have to do something -
I mean, we’re talking about loosing money
here. The motivation will never come from 400 lost lives if the customers don’t
care and the money keeps coming. It’s just human life, what can you buy with
that?
Another thing that got me thinking
after this horrible disaster was the unfairness of media coverage. I study media
within my degree, and one of the most eye-opening things I’ve learnt (I’m not
being patronising, it’s great if you were aware of this already but I genuinely
never realised it before) was that someone out there decides what is reported
or not and how much coverage it gets. The more coverage it gets, the more
important it should be, right? Now add the pervert underworld of ambitions,
politics, greed and money, and voilà,
the picture is not quite that logical. How else would you explain the extensive
coverage of the Boston events, and the less-than-one-minute news reports when
similar, or even worse, events happen in Iraq? It’s sad, but it’s the truth.
While doing my dissertation, I read this sentence in a book by Alan Bell:
‘News is what happens to one
Englishman, 10 Germans, and 1000 Indians.’ *
He characterises it as an ‘oldtime,
typically racist adages from newrooms walls’. It is definitely racist, but is
it oldtime? Do newsrooms work any differently nowadays? I personally do not
think so. Otherwise, the world should stop because of this building collapsing
the same way it did when the bombs exploded in Boston. Or at least get the same
coverage, letting people decide the importance they want to give to it, instead
of attaching a degree of importance by covering it more and less.
(Since we’re talking about media
coverage, I wouldn’t be surprised if brands were actually pressuring media
outlets not to extensively cover the Dhaka events, so that they do not have to
answer to us, the customers. Is this too much conspiracy for just one post?)
The blogging community could be one
the most influential factors in this debate, not only because the high street
is definitely the biggest consumer of cheap labour and that is the kind of
fashion found in blogs, but also because of the quick and extensive spread of
trends and ideologies through the internet.
From now on, I’ll be more conscious
of where the clothes I buy come from, even if the lost lives in Dhaka did not
make it to the front cover. Will you?
I'd love to hear your opinion on this issue, so please leave a comment!
*in 'Language of News Media', p.204, 1991
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